Infant warmer having electric (infrared) heating means

ABSTRACT

A separate environment limited to the immediate vicinity of an infant is created by the infant warmer which employs infrared radiation controlled in intensity by a unit responsive to the body skin temperature of an infant. The warmer is elongate in design to provide a controlled environment of limited dimensions within a surrounding ambient environment and includes a vertical mounting stand which is adapted to receive insertable block adjusting sections for controlled height adjustment.

United States Patent Auld 1 Feb. 29, 1972 [54] INFANT WARMER HAVINGELECTRIC 2,611,367 9/1952 Harkenrider ..219/347 UX (INFRARED) HEATINGMEANS 2,951,928 9/1960 2,974,870 3/1961 1 1 lnvemofl John Auld, Eugene.s 3,299,253 1/1967 Lawson ..2|9/s43 x Prod ts I E [73] Assignee Merco ucnc ugene Oreg Primary Examiner-R F- staubly [22] Filed! 1968Attorney-Seed, Berry 8L Dowrey [21] Appl. No.: 782,166 [57] ABSTRACT Aseparate environment limited to the immediate vicinity of..2l9/347,2l9/35:l,02;b8/l1/8; an infant is creamd by the infant warmwhich employs ini 58 Fieid 358 frared radiation controlled in intensityby a unit responsive to the body skin temperature of an infant. Thewarmer is elongate in design to provide a controlled environment oflimited dimensions within a surrounding ambient environment and inl561References Cam cludes a vertical mounting stand which is adapted toreceive UNITED STATES PATENTS insertable block adjusting sections forcontrolled height ad- 'ustment. 2,402,934 6/1946 Wood... ..248/161 J2,495,513 1/1950 Doyle ..219/354 X 1 Claims, 2 Drawing FiguresPATENTEDFEBZQ I972 3, 646, 3 1 9 JOHN R. AULD INVENTOR.

ATTORNEYS INFANT WARMER HAVING ELECTRIC (INFRARED) HEATING MEANS Thepresent invention relates to electrical warming units generally and moreparticularly to a novel and improved infant warmer for providinginfrared radiation of controlled intensity.

A newborn infant has been accustomed to a constant temperature of 37 C.in utero, but the environmental conditions of hospital delivery roomsare adjusted for the thermal comforts of adults. Obviously, warming thedelivery room environment to conform with that to which the infant hasbeen accustomed would result in acute discomfort for adults, butexposure to cooler environment causes the newborn infant to lose bodyheat rapidly by evaporation, convection and radiation.

Associated with decrease in the body temperature of the newborn infantare evidences of biochemical stress and change. Such biochemical changedoes not normally adversely affect the healthy term infant, but inpremature infants or those who have birth asphyxia, there is evidence toindicate that cooling might be detrimental.

Apart from biochemical change, the drop in infant body temperature atbirth prevents the measurement of body temperature for an indication ofdisease during the first 6 to 12 hours after birth. There are severalserious but treatable conditions, for example hypoglycemia and severeinfection, which may be evidenced by hypothermia. However, if the infantis chilled in the delivery room, body temperature cannot be used as aguideline to detect these conditions.

It is desirable to provide two environments within a delivery room toaccommodate both the newborn infant and the adults present. If possible,the warmer environment should be limited to the immediate vicinity ofthe infant and must be carefully controlled.

It is a primary object of this invention to provide a novel and improvedinfant warmer adapted to develop a controlled temperature environment inthe vicinity of an infant.

Another object of this invention is to provide a novel and improvedinfant warmer which incorporates a positive adjustment feature providedby sized spacer blocks insertable in the support stand for a spacedwarming unit.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a novel andimproved infant warmer which includes a temperature control responsiveto infant body temperature.

These and other objects of this invention will become readily apparentupon consideration of the following specification and claims inconjunction with the accompanying drawing.

IN THE DRAWING FIG. I is a perspective view of the infant warmer of thepresent invention; and

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the infant warmer of FIG. 1 attached toan infant support table.

Referring now to the drawing, the infant warmer of the present inventionindicated generally at 10 includes an adjustable support section 12 fora heater assembly 14 which may be connected to a base 16. The heaterassembly includes an elongated casing I8 preferably of stainless steel,which supports an infra red heating tube assembly 20 and the electricalcircuitry therefor. Radiation from the heating tube assembly is directedfrom the casing through an opening 22 which is covered by an extrudedmetallic mesh 24 of aluminum or similar mesh material.

The adjustable support section 12 includes a vertical column 26, anL-shaped shelf bracket 28, a support insert column 30 and one or moreelevating spacers 32 connected to form a telescoping support. Thesupport insert column is designed to fit within a stub bracket 34 whichis attached to one end of the casing 18, and one end of the insertcolumn is retained within the bracket by a bolt 36.

The vertical column 26, the shelf bracket 28, and the elevating spacer32 are formed of tubular metallic material, such as the square metaltubing illustrated in the drawing, which is dimensioned to receive theinsert column 30. One leg 38 of the shelf bracket forms a sleeve toreceive the insert column, which then extends through the elevatingspacers and into the vertical column. The elevating spacers aredimensioned to extend the length of the support section 12 by specificincrements.

The base section 16 is formed by two spaced parallel legs 40 joined by across section 42. The end of the vertical column 26 is secured to thecross section and the vertical column extends at substantially a rightangle to the base section. When the infant warmer is upright, the basesection and heater assembly are maintained in substantially parallelrelationship.

The legs 40 and cross section 42 of the base section 16 are formed oftubular material of the type used in the adjustable support section 12,and are adapted to slide beneath a carrier for the infant. In someinstances, it may be desirable to make the infant warmer mobile with theinfant carrier, and for this purpose, the base section 12 is eliminatedand the vertical column 26 is secured directly to a wheeled infantsupport table as illustrated in FIG. 2.

The electrical circuitry for energizing the heating tube assembly 20 iscontrolled by a servocontroller unit 44 which is supported by a shelf 46secured to a leg 48 projecting laterally from the leg 38 of the shelfbracket 28. This servocontroller is connected to the infrared tubeassembly by an output lead 50 and to a suitable power source by an inputlead 52.

The desired temperature for the environment in the immediate vicinity ofan infant is set into the servocontroller by means of a control dial 54,and the actual body skin temperature of the infant is sensed by means ofa thermistor probe 56 which is attached to the skin of the infant. Thesignal from the thermistor probe passes to the servocontroller unit 44over a line 58, and operates to determine when the servocontrollerenergizes the infrared tube assembly 20. Actually the probe forms oneleg of an A C bridge which includes a variable leg responsive to thecontrol dial 54. If the temperature sensed by the probe deviates fromthat set by the control dial, the bridge becomes unbalanced and anamplified error signal is provided to control a relay. The relay in turndetermines when power is provided to energize the infrared tubeassembly.

The servocontroller unit 44 may be formed by a number of commerciallyavailable units such, as for example, the Therrnistemp (R) temperaturecontroller, YSI model 71, manufactured by the Yellow Springs InstrumentCo. of Yellow Springs, Ohio. This controller operates to cycle the infratube assembly 20 and accurately maintains a preset temperatureenvironment responsive to actual infant body temperature sensed by theprobe 56.

It is imperative that the heater assembly 14 by vertically adjustablerelative to the position of an infant, but the heater assembly mustnever be moved too close to the infant's body. Therefore, the accuratelydimensioned elevating spacers 32 are provided to permit adjustmentwithin specified perameters, and once a spacer is included, there is nodanger that the support section 12 will slip out of adjustment while theheater assembly is in use.

It is believed that the invention will have been clearly understood fromthe foregoing detailed description of my nowpreferred illustratedembodiment. Changes in the details of construction may be resorted towithout departing from the spirit of the invention and it is accordinglymy intention that no limitations be implied and that the hereto annexedclaims be given the broadest interpretation to which the employedlanguage fairly admits.

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property orprivilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. An infant warmer for creating a controlled environment of increasedtemperature about an infant comprising an electrical heating assemblyincluding an elongated casing and in- I frared heating means mountedwithin the casing, heating consioned to telescopically receive the freeend of said insert column and shelf means to support said heatingcontrol means, said shelf means including an L-shaped bracket having avertical leg and a horizontal leg, the vertical leg of said bracketbeing formed of tubular material adapted for insertion over said supportinsert column between said horizontal leg for supporting said heatingcontrol means.

1. An infant warmer for creating a controlled environment of increasedtemperature about an infant comprising an electrical heating assemblyincluding an elongated casing and infrared heating means mounted withinthe casing, heating control means connected to control the energizationof said heating means, said heating control means being operable tocycle said heating means to maintain a preset skin temperature, andsupport means connected to said casing adjacent one end thereof, saidsupport means including a vertical column assembly adjustable in lengthto vertically position said infrared heating means in a horizontal planeabove said infant, said vertical column assembly comprising an elongatedsupport in said column, one end of which is secured to one end of saidelongated casing, a vertical column of tubular material dimensioned totelescopically receive the free end of said insert column and shelfmeans to support said heating control means, said shelf means includingan L-shaped bracket having a vertical leg and a horizontal leg, thevertical leg of said bracket being formed of tubular material adaptedfor insertion over said support insert column between said horizontalleg for supporting said heating control means.